Let loose: Give holiday stress the boot with relaxation, diet, exercise and sleep

The holidays can create extra stress for people; learning to relax, keep to a schedule and know your boundaries can help alleviate stress.

The holidays bring lights, trees, gifts and music. And also stress.

The American Psychological Association reports that people in the United States experience a range of negative emotions during the holidays, from fatigue to sadness. Those emotions especially affect women and people in middle- to low-income ranges who feel a financial pinch amid the heightened expectations of the season, according to the APA survey.

Avoiding the stress in the first place can help make the holidays less stressful and more enjoyable.

Take a meditation break

Yoga classes often close with savasana, or “corpse pose,” to allow the participants to quiet their bodies and minds.

The practice can be done at home and can provide relief from holiday tension.

“Even taking five minutes or so to set aside and relax all the muscles and pay attention to your breathing is a very powerful de-stressor,” said Jack Krebs of Yoga Center of Lawrence.

Krebs recommends starting by lying down with some support under your head and knees. Then systematically go through the parts of your body, including your muscles and organs, and relax them one by one.

Krebs describes connecting to each body part as if you are “running through a little story.”

• Lie loose with arms open and fingers spread.

• Start with your feet and your toes. “We have a lot of tension in our toes,” he said.

• Work up the body and think about relaxing the abdominal muscles, arms, face, eyes, mouth. Pay special attention to the face by relaxing the tension behind the eyes, loosening the lips and dropping the tongue off the palate.

• Move your attention out of your head and into your chest; just quietly, slowly, let yourself be breathing. Think of breathing from the inside out and expanding the lungs in all four directions.

The Yoga Center of Lawrence is at 920 Massachusetts St., Suite 4.

For those who don’t regularly practice yoga, meditation or relaxation, this could be a good time to start.

Jack Krebs, of the Yoga Center of Lawrence, says learning yoga means learning the skills that help you recognize the signs of stress and give you the ability to ward them off right away.

“Once you’re aware of your body, you have a continual de-stressing tool,” Krebs said.

Aynsley Anderson, a registered nurse and the community education coordinator at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, is also a Mayo Clinic certified wellness coach. This time of year, she’s often asked for help addressing the topic of holiday stress. Much of that stress comes from expectations, of ourselves and of others, she said.

“A lot of it we put on ourselves,” Anderson said. “Try to keep those expectations realistic. You’re only one person; you don’t really have control over everybody else. Make it work for you.”

Sleep, exercise and nutrition are often set on the back burner during the holidays, but rest and regular exercise — especially if they are part of your normal routine — are essential to well-being and function and also help boost your immune system.

“Not only does keeping up with your regular diet and exercise routine help you stay less stressed, it helps you avoid picking up colds and flu,” Anderson said.

“Exercise releases endorphins, those feel-good stress-resistant hormones, so people who do that are less likely to feel stressed,” she said. And it has the added benefit of improving quality of sleep.

Expending calories while spending money is one way to incorporate a little exercise into a holiday task, Anderson said.

“If you’re going shopping, walk around the mall once first,” she said. “If you go to a big box store, make a circuit first. “

The average square footage of a Super Target is 175,000 square feet; that’s plenty of space for a quick walk before getting down to the business of buying gifts.

“And do it at a reasonably fast pace so you’re actually getting in some exercise,” she said.

Krebs said that being stressed is a learned behavior, and it takes time to overcome it.

“In our culture we have learned to keep ourselves stressed for large portions of every day,” he said. “To de-stress for longer than just the holidays, start now.”

Krebs recommends making a New Year’s resolution to de-stress and spending the coming year learning how to do it.

“Our body learns by doing,” he said. “Whether it be through yoga or a similar experience, take it upon yourself to learn about the stresses in your body and how to relax.”